Wilkinson's path to UNCW clears

What started as an alert to an ominous email nearly derailed Merritt Wilkinson from what was seemingly a perfect fit to play softball at UNC Wilmington.

In May, a committee recommended that UNCW cut five sports programs, including softball. Wilkinson, who graduated from Western Alamance last month and signed with UNCW in the fall, was thrust into uncertainty a few months ahead of her anticipated arrival on campus.

“When it first came out nobody knew what was going on,” Wilkinson said. “We didn’t know what to do. The coach didn’t know what to do. You wanted to think positive, and I knew there was nothing I could do.

“It was a shock that it could possibly go away.”

That shock turned into an outcry of support for the softball program, along with men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s cross country.

Through a series of online petitions and support for the programs under the axe, UNCW chancellor Gary Miller announced that the school wouldn’t eliminate any programs.

It ended about two weeks of panic that Wilkinson, the Class 3-A West Player of the Year for the North Carolina Softball Coaches Association, wouldn’t want to repeat.

“I’d always wanted to go to Wilmington, I chose there because of softball and the school,” Wilkinson said.

Kristy Norton, who just completed her first season as UNCW’s coach, sent an email to team members and commits the day of the initial announcement. Wilkinson said could tell something was awry by the tone of the email.

That didn’t soften the blow when Wilkinson later learned that the program she had committed to could be cut.

“I would still like the school, I would be fine going there, but I wanted to play softball,” Wilkinson said. “I really had always dreamed of going to a Division I school.”

The prospect of going to UNCW for a year as a student, then transferring to play softball, was a possibility. The school announced it would honor all scholarships for one school year if the program was cut. Wilkinson also looked at smaller schools with transferring in mind.

But none of the alternate scenarios was appealing, given that Wilkinson had planned on playing softball at UNCW for the better part of a year.

“I was really trying not to worry about it until I knew for sure. I was just like, ‘There’s nothing I can do.’ ”

So when UNCW held a news conference in May and the programs facing elimination asked for support, Wilkinson was on the way.

“They really wanted a lot of support,” Wilkinson said. “People were emailing the chancellor. We were telling anybody we knew to sign up (for online petitions) and email the chancellor.

Wilkinson said through the process of uncertainty, Norton served as a calming influence.

“The coach was really positive about it. It made me feel like she thought it wouldn’t happen,” Wilkinson said. “She was trying to relay to us what they were feeling.”